Rhode Island is known for its louder, heavier music. There are a number of great metal, noise, hardcore, and screamo bands that call this state their home. But in recent months, one band has been climbing to the top of the pile: Singe. The self-proclaimed Post-Sludge band was formed in the summer of 2025 and features Jake Draven on vocals, Eric “Cheeko” Dahl on guitar, Meg Pereira on bass, and Cal Nugent on drums. Since their inception, they have dominated the stage in multiple states, amassing a dedicated following and forging a path to a massively successful future.
At their practice space, I sat down with the band and asked some questions. Here are their answers.
Jack Downey (Motif): You guys have been together for eight months at this point. How have those eight months been?
Cal: Crazy.
Meg: Crazyyy.
Cheeko: We went from not even knowing who these guys were to playing tons of shows, and now we’re booked in New York, we’ve got an EP and two singles out, we made a music video. There’s a lot happening.
JD: Very cool. And how did you guys meet?
Jake: So, to begin with, I wanted my old band to become a metal band. It wasn’t working out that way. Then Meg tells me there’s this metal band conveniently looking for a vocalist and a bassist. And I’m like, “Oh, sick. Where are they located?” Connecticut. I was already writing it off. Then we find out they’re actually in West Warwick. And I’m just like, “Are we even going to do this?” And Meg was like, “No, we should do it.” So then we pulled up. And it worked out.
Cheeko: Cal and I, in high school, started Singe. We were looking for somebody. By coincidence, Meg hit us up. And boom. That was June of 2025.
JD: What was the first song that you guys wrote? What was the first song that was jammed on? What was the moment that showed you guys that this was going to work out?
Cheeko: It was “Secure.” That was our second single, or most recent one, that we put out in December. And that was a song that Cal and I wrote. That was kind of what sold the whole deal.
Cal: We’ve had a handful of songs, but that was our first fully fledged one.
Jake: It was interesting because coming into the project, I was under the impression that they were going for a real nu-metal sound, which is still very prevalent. But I’m not really a nu-metal kind of vocalist. I have some contextual knowledge of nu-metal, but my heart’s in sludge. So I felt like there was a really cool balance. It almost seemed like an untouched niche of nu-metal bounce with sludge. So I would say “Secure” is, like, the first post-sludge song. The tried and true sound.
JD: How did your first show come about? And what was that like?
Jake: I hit up Ethan [Dowding] at Pub on Park. I said, “I have a new band. Can we play a show?”
Cheeko: Cal and I had never played a show. That was one of our first shows. And I was kind of scared that we weren’t ready. But that show killed. It was a really good experience.
Jake: It was a learning experience for me as well. Being a singer and a guitarist for so long, taking off the guitar and just having to stand up there. It was almost like I was naked.
JD: Would you say that the sludge scene is a supportive scene?
Meg: Connecticut definitely is.
Cheeko: Honestly, I feel like hardcore and sludge are Connecticut’s bread and butter, and now coming into the scene, you really see how many bands are dabbling in the genre.
Jake: It’s interesting because the DNA of sludge comes from Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Volume IV and Damaged by Black Flag. Most of these bands draw influence from sludge, but they lean into that hardcore side. They lean into the doom-y aspects of the genre. There’s so many variables that come together to build the genre that I think makes it so welcoming and open to interpretation. So there’s a lot of great, great bands in Connecticut that are mixing styles together.
JD: So you guys made a music video. What was that like?
Cal: That was great.
Jake: We worked with Liz McLean and Kira Hodges from LMK Mag. We did a two-day shoot. That was a really fun day. We did all the stunt work, and I got beat up. Then we had a show here the day after.
Meg: That was great.
Jake: I think I counted 36 people, not including the bands.
Cheeko: They have a very awesome picture of everyone who showed up. It’s sick.
Jake: We had a band, Damaged Product, open up for us, and they killed it. The crowd was white hot. New England Underground came and filmed us, got some pictures. We finished up the video shoot. We shaved my buddy’s head on camera. There was just so much going on that whole day.
Cheeko: Yeah, that was fun.
Meg: That was fun.
JD: What is Singe looking to accomplish in 2026?
Cheeko: So we want to grow our following on all fronts, whether it’s having more people at our
shows, bigger social media presence, or just more streams and all that, overall. We want to make another music video and really get this EP out and promote it. We have a bunch of content and stuff ready for that to come out for promotion. Also, we want to start working with the people around us, just to build what we have and really get the name out there.
Jake: We’re just trying to make moves with the name.
Meg: The main thing is probably the EP though, getting to promote that.
JD: I guess to close it off, do you have any last things you want to add?
Cheeko: Definitely, I want to shout out Sierra King for doing a lot of the artwork and photography for our band, Lucky Star Studios, LMK Mag, and the EP.
Cal: Shout out to “Secure” and the video.
Cheeko: Really just the biggest thing is to keep an eye out for Singe.
Singe’s debut EP, Sin, Waste & Decay, is out now on all streaming platforms. The band is preparing to go on tour later in the year.